Our intent with these changes is to reduce the amount of initial burst damage dealt by players in world PvP, especially when using certain legendary items or trinkets, giving the player being attacked more opportunity to react. While we want to maintain the “anything goes” nature of world PvP in Legion, we do want you to have at least some chance to retaliate, even when caught by surprise.

Five years ago, I received a phone call from Blizzard offering me the chance of a lifetime—a position on the World of Warcraft team.

Simply put, this is my favorite game of all time, and working on it these past five years has been a dream come true. I have learned so much from the women and men who make it and everyone who plays it. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on a game that so many people around the world are so passionate about.

A few weeks ago, I was offered a new opportunity at Blizzard that I’m really excited about. Tomorrow is my last day working on World of Warcraft.

As a longtime player, I couldn't be more excited about what the future has in store for World of Warcraft. In particular, the PvP team remains hard at work on some incredible plans. I fully expect that the best years of World of Warcraft PvP are ahead of us.

Thank you to everyone involved with World of Warcraft, from the development team to the players, for letting me be a part of this game's community. I consider it a great privilege.

As we’ve often done before, we’ve got a round of PvP tuning hotfixes that will take effect with our next maintenance in each region. We wanted to get this posted for discussion before the weekend.Thanks for your feedback!

We're going to be making a few PvP tuning changes early next week, with a focus on Guardian Druids. Due to how close these changes will be to the next North American Qualifier tournament, we wanted to give everyone advanced warning. These changes are still in test (and could change), and will not be applied to live servers until Tuesday.

Demon Hunter - Havoc:-Chaotic Onslaught can no longer cause Chaos Strike to trigger more than one additional Chaos Strike in PvP situations.-Rain from Above will now properly suppress all root effects when cast, such as Frost Nova.

Druid - Guardian:-Pawsitive Outlook can no longer cause Thrash to trigger more than one additional Thrash in PvP situations.-Sharpened Claws increases Thrash and Swipe damage by 25%, down from 50%.-Frenzied Regeneration now heals for 25% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, down from 50%.-PvP Template Agility reduced by 5%.-PvP Template Stamina reduced by 5%.

Monk - Brewmaster:-Stave Off can no longer cause Keg Smash to trigger more than one additional Keg Smash in PvP situations.

Warrior - Fury:-Oathblood can no longer cause Bloodthirst to trigger more than one additional Bloodthirst in PvP situations.

We’ve made a few additional adjustments that will go live on Tuesday with Patch 7.2

Classes• The damage bonus that tanks and healers get per Artifact point spent has been increased to 0.65% for all tanks and Discipline Priests (was 0.5%), and the bonus has been increased to 1.3% for all other healers (was 1%).Druid• Feral Druids now deal 4% more damage with Rake, Shred, Swipe, Thrash, Brutal Slash, Moonfire, Ferocious BIte, Ashamane's Frenzy, and Rip.Monk• Windwalker Monks now deal 8% more damage with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, and Rising Sun Kick.Warlock• Ulthalesh now has a greatly increased chance to generate the first three Tormented Souls at the beginning of a raid encounter.

We’ve also got a number of additional PvP adjustments coming with this patch:

PvPDemon Hunter

Havoc

The duration of Nemesis is reduced to 15 seconds in PvP.

The damage of Chaos Strike and Annihilation is reduced by 15% in PvP.

Vengeance

Vengeance no longer deals 10% reduced damage in PvP.

Druid

Balance

Enemy players can now see the radius of Starfall while active.

Moonfire, Sunfire, and Starfall now deal 50% less periodic damage to player targets.

You’ll see these reflected in the final, official patch notes, which should be posted on Monday.

We're also making a change to how your damage and health increase as you spend points in your Artifact: The damage bonus per point noted above will stop at the 52nd point acquired, and the health bonus will decrease starting with the 53rd point acquired.

Join us live on Twitch Thursday, March 9, as we sit down with Senior Game Designer Brian Holinka for our next live developer Q&A where he’ll be answering your World of Warcraft: Legion PvP questions. If you’re an esports fan, you’ll also want to tune in to hear from WoW Esports Manager Jeramy McIntyre who will be sharing a little more on the WoW Arena World Championship for 2017.

Feel free to submit questions by posting in this forum thread or via Twitter using the hashtag #LegionQA.

We’re really looking forward to getting the chance to dive in and answer as much as we can, so we hope to see you Thursday at 11:00 a.m. PST!

With the next weekly maintenance, we're planning a large round of PvP tuning changes, as well as a few PvE buffs for Unholy. Please see below for the full list of changes that are currently planned. As always, this may not be the final list - additional tuning may be added or removed before these changes go live.

Classes

Death Knight

Unholy

Virulent Plague damage over time effect has been increased by 67%. Damage unchanged in PvP.

This is a topic we've been discussing a lot recently. We agree that damage feels rather high in World PvP situations and we're considering some changes. First, we removed base resilience coming into Legion because we adjusted the rate at which health pools scale with respect to damage. In the past, player damage tended to outpace a character's health pool making damage feel stronger as an expansion went on. We made some adjustments to that system but we've found through playtesting with the templates that we've had to decrease damage and increase health to get damage pacing to a good spot.

In a future patch, we're considering adding in some base resilience to bring damage and health ratios closer to where they are with our pvp templates (and the adjusting those templates to compensate). It should make for better damage pacing in the outside world. We don't plan on activating templates in the outside world though. We think it's important that the game have a place where we don't make such drastic adjustments so you can feel your character's full power when fighting another player. Meanwhile, battlegrounds and arenas provide a much more structured environment for PvP gameplay.

Developers’ Notes: Aluriel’s Mirror’s detonation effect is strong when it activates, but hard to rely on. We’re increasing the heal-over-time effect significantly to improve the up-front value of this trinket, and reducing the detonation effect slightly to compensate.

(Unholy Death Knight) Proc rate increased by 68% with Summon Gargoyle, and no change with Dark Arbiter.

(Feral Druid) Fixed a bug that prevented Incarnation from working properly with Convergence, and no change with Berserk.

(Windwalker Monk) Proc rate decreased by 62% with Storm, Earth, and Fire, and decreased by 75% with Serenity.

(Retribution Paladin) Proc rate increased by 250% with Avenging Wrath, and increased by 25% with Crusade.

Draught of Souls: The Use effect of this trinket now respects the global cooldown. The damage of this trinket is now reduced by 30% for Unholy Death Knights (was reduced by 40%).

Developers’ Notes: Since Draught of Souls deals Shadow Damage, it’s increased by Unholy’s Mastery, which means we needed to reduce its base damage to keep its overall value similar to other classes. It’s currently a little too low, however, so we’re increasing the damage it deals for Unholy.

Entwined Elemental Foci: The amount of Critical Strike, Mastery, and Haste granted by this item has been increased by 5%.

Etraeus' Celestial Map: The amount of Critical Strike, Mastery, and Haste granted by this item has been increased by 5%.

Fury of the Burning Sky: Damage increased by 40%.

Icon of Rot: Damage increased by 40%.

Might of Krosus: Damage reduced by 25%, but is now always a critical strike. Also, fixed a bug where the cooldown was incorrectly being reduced if Might of Krosus damaged at least 3 targets. The tooltip for Might of Krosus will display the amount of damage that will result from the critical hit, not the base damage.

Perfectly Preserved Cake: Absorb amount increased by 140%.

Pharamere's Forbidden Grimoire: Damage increased by 85%.

Star Gate: Damage increased by 30%.

Player versus Player

Druid

Guardian Druids now have 5% less Agility in PvP.

Hunter

Survival Hunters now have 7.5% less Agility in PvP.

Paladin

Protection Paladins now have 5% less Strength in PvP.

Hand of the Protector and Light of the Protector now heal for 35% less in PvP situations (was 15% less).

During the G.G. Engineering challenge, the Shielded damage reduction buff is now immediately removed from Max Megablast or Bo Bobble when the active Shield Generator they are standing near is destroyed.

The Brawler's Potion of Prolonged Power should now share a cooldown with other potions that increase damage.

Strange Thing's uninterruptible casts should not be interruptible by any means.

Strange Thing’s debuffs can no longer be dispelled by players.

Classes

Hunter

Flanking Strike can correctly be used at level 12 when it is learned.

Class Halls

Fixed a bug that prevented some players from queueing Artifact Knowledge Research Work Orders.

Dungeons and Raids

Fixed a bug where Mists of Pandaria dungeon items were dropping with an incorrect level requirement.

Items

(Frost Mage) Zann'esu Journey: should no longer sometimes increase the damage of Blizzard after the item is unequipped.

Convergence of Fates: now activates 70% less often for Retribution Paladins (other specs unaffected).

(Demonology Warlock) Feretory of Souls: can now generate a Soul Shard when the Warlock casts Demonbolt, Hand of Gul’dan, Implosion, or Shadowflame.

Whispers in the Dark: casting speed increase has been reduced by 15%.

Spontaneous Appendages: the damage done by the spontaneous appendages generated by Spontaneous Appendages has been increased by 65%.

Legion Companion App

Added notifications for Android.

Player versus Player

Stamina increased by 10% for all specs.

Primary stat (Strength/Agility/Intellect) decreased by 5% for all non-healing specs.

Character progression is a core element of World of Warcraft, and that includes PvP. In Legion, empowering your Artifact to become stronger is a key part of character progression. When Artifact Knowledge levels were low at the beginning of the expansion, we deactivated the 35+ Artifact Traits in instanced PvP to avoid having large power gaps when compared to players who hadn't made much progress on their Artifact yet.

In Patch 7.1.5, we added several methods that allow players to catch up their Artifact progression very quickly. Brand new players can advance up to Artifact Knowledge level 15 without any research time, and existing players can mail Artifact Knowledge Compendiums to alts, which immediately bring them as high as level 20. At this point, the power gap between a player with 35+ traits in their Artifact and a player just starting out is significantly less of a concern, as the gap can be closed very rapidly. For those reasons, we felt that Patch 7.1.5 was the right time to re-open Artifact progression to PvPers who had already earned the first 34 traits.

However, we did not communicate this change (and its purpose) with enough advance notice to allow players to effectively prepare for it. Furthermore, while the improvements in Patch 7.1.5 make it much easier to unlock those final traits for new players or alternate characters, they weren't available until today. While we still believe activating these traits is the correct choice for World of Warcraft PvP, the middle of an ongoing season is not the right time to make this change.

As of a few minutes ago, we've applied a hotfix that once again disables the 35+ Artifact Traits in instanced PvP on North American and Oceanic servers. In other regions, this hotfix will be applied with the patch. The 35+ Artifact Traits will remain disabled for Legion PvP Season 2.

Once Season 3 begins, we'll re-enable them. Note that Patch 7.2 will include some further expansions to the Artifact system that will make it highly valuable to have spent some Artifact Power on those traits (another reason we feel it's important that they be enabled in PvP). We'll have more details to share on those changes once Patch 7.2 has begun its public testing phase.

We wanted to clarify a couple of points surrounding the end of the recent PvP season.

First - players who were eligible for the “Vindictive Gladiator” title will not receive their title until after the holidays – there is currently an issue with the delivery of the title, and we will be looking at this over the coming weeks.

Second – we are currently looking into the number of titles that have been handed out to make sure they match our expectations. We will be reviewing our rewards process and this past season's data over the next few weeks. We expect to have more information for you in early January.

We’d like to apologize to the players impacted by this, as it was never our intention to disrupt the PvP community in such a way. We are looking towards addressing these issues sooner rather than later so future seasons can go on undisrupted.

Burning Bones should no longer sometimes inflict damage to the tank instead of the player with the debuff.

Player versus Player

End-of-match rewards from Rated Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds now get increased item level based on your current rating in that bracket, instead of your current item level.

Developers’ Notes: While the Weekly Quests for each bracket were giving rewards based on rating, the rewards given at the conclusion of a Rated Arena or Rated Battleground weren’t aligned with the challenge involved in earning a high rating. This change makes winning high-rated Arena or Rated Battleground matches more analogous to running repeated high-level Mythic Keystone dungeons.

Rated Battleground wins no longer have a guaranteed chance to reward an item.

Developers’ Notes: RBG wins would’ve been far too lucrative. We’re lowering the base chance of receiving an item, but also applying some aggressive bad luck protection. While you won’t earn an item from every single RBG win any more, they’ll still be very common, and far more valuable at higher ratings.

(Blood) The Hungering Maw now increases the player's Armor by 10%, then increases by 1% for every additional point put into the Infinite Progression Artifact Trait.

Druid

(Restoration) The legendary item Aman'Thul's Wisdom should now work correctly with Rejuvenation and Germination when cast on other players.

Hunter

(Beast Mastery) Spiritbound now increases the player's damage, Hati's damage, and the player's pet damage by 5%, then increases by 0.5% for every additional point put into the Infinite Progression Artifact Trait.

Paladin

The damage from Greater Blessing of Might will no longer be increased twice by some debuffs on the target.

Priest

(Discipline) Forbidden Flame now increases the player's damage and healing by 4%, then increases by 0.4% for every additional point into the Infinite Progression Artifact Trait.

Shadow: Voidform’s Insanity drain now begins at 8 Insanity per second (down from 9), but will increase at a 10% faster rate

Developers’ Notes: We want to reduce the maximum amount of time that Surrender to Madness can be maintained, without significantly impacting Shadow otherwise. Our intent in this hotfix is that it’s still effective to use Surrender similarly to how it is currently used, but that its maximum potential in ideal situations is slightly less extreme.

Warlock

Sweet Souls should no longer completely heal the Warlock when an ally uses a healthstone.

Dungeons

Hellfire Citadel

LFR Queuing for Archimonde’s Fall at the Black Gate now has Anetheron, Azgalor, Kaz’rogal, and Archimonde spawned once the queue pops.

Return to Karazhan

Fixed an issue which could cause Galindre to not reset properly on a failed attempt.

Trial of Valor

Helya

Anchor Slam should now inflict less damage to secondary targets on Normal difficulty.

Resolved an issue where Fury of the Maw would do drastically more damage than intended on targets recently wounded by an Orb of Corrosion.

Items

All Legion Legendary items have had their item level increased by 15. This change will be applied retroactively.

All items from the Trial of Valor have had their base item level increased by 5. This change will be applied retroactively.

The damage from the equip effect of Choker of Barbed Reins should scale down in Timewalking dungeons.

Player versus Player

The following PvP adjustments will take place with the next realm maintenance.

Death Knight

(Frost) Strength reduced by 10%.

(Blood) Blood Boil now deals full damage in PvP (was reduced).

Developers’ Notes: Frost Death Knight damage continues to be higher than we’d like following the changes in Patch 7.1. For Blood, we no longer feel the damage reduction on Blood Boil is necessary. We plan to make a broader set of changes for them (and other tanks) in Patch 7.1.5.

Druid

(Feral) Rake now deals 20% less damage to players.

Developers’ Notes: We like that Feral Druids can apply a lot of spread pressure through their bleeds, but Rake’s damage feels out of line.

Mage

(Fire) Intellect increased by 10%.

Developers’ Notes: Fire Mages have simply fallen behind in terms of damage output, and we felt they needed an increase.

Paladin

(Holy) Mana regeneration has been reduced.

(Holy) Avenging Crusader now costs 110,000 mana.

Developers’ Notes: Holy Paladins are too mana efficient in current PvP gameplay. We’re reducing their overall regeneration, as well as adding a mana cost to Avenging Crusader, since it was essentially mana-free healing.

Rogue

Feint reduces damage taken from player cast area-of-effect spells by 30% (was 50%).

(All specs) Stamina has been increased by 5%.

Developers’ Notes: Feint’s AoE damage reduction is intended to protect Rogues during dungeon and raid encounters, but many class abilities that feel like single target spells in PvP are treated as AoE effects (e.g. Lunar Strike, Ice Nova). This makes Rogues unintentionally resistant to those abilities. We’re reducing Feint’s AoE damage reduction in PvP, but increasing Stamina to compensate.

Developers' Notes: Stormkeeper is at the center of a combination of cooldowns and procs that can cause extraordinarily high damage in a very short time. We're reducing its impact but increasing Elemental's damage overall to compensate.

Developers’ Notes: Patch 7.1 changed the design of Unstable Affliction, and our initial tuning on the dispel damage was simply too low. For Destruction, we want spending Soul Shards on Chaos Bolt to feel rewarding when weighed against the alternatives.

Quests

The weekly event quest “The Very Best” should no longer be cleared from the quest log when logging in on a low-level character.

Kirin Tor world quests can now appear when the Kirin Tor emissary is not active.

Sound

Players no longer receive any sound following the Quick Join notifications when friends or guild members queue.

any new adventures lie ahead in Legion, and Game Director Ion Hazzikostas explored some upcoming content updates in the World of Warcraft: Legion – What’s Next panel at BlizzCon 2016.

Delivering New Content

One of the key goals for Legion is to make sure we’re delivering a steady stream of content throughout the expansion. We want to make sure there’s always something to look forward to. We also want to take better advantage of the very nature of MMOs by providing a living, breathing world, with things changing day-to-day or week-to-week, and offering a wide variety of content and new rewards.

To accomplish this, we’re building our patch structure in Legion to deliver content updates of varying sizes. You’ll see everything from a small patch like 6.2.3, which added Cataclysm Timewalking and other features, to larger update like Patch 6.2: Fury of Hellfire, or something in-between like Patch 7.1: Return to Karazhan—there’s no one size fits all approach.

Looking into Patch 7.1.5

Now that we’ve released patch 7.1, we’re preparing for our next patch, 7.1.5—one we’re considering a “small” patch. This kind of patch contains features like system updates, rewards, and evergreen content—things that aren’t tied to any overarching story.

Here’s some of what you can expect in Patch 7.1.5:

Timewalking in Pandaria

Timewalking Dungeons are a good example of “evergreen” content. In this patch, we’ll be adding six Mists of Pandaria dungeons into the Timewalking cycle: Temple of Jade Serpent, Stormstout Brewery, Shado-Pan Monastery, Gate of the Setting Sun, Mogu’shan Palace, and Siege of Niuzao Temple.

Brawler’s Guild Season 3

The Brawler’s Guild closed their doors for renovations toward the end of Warlords of Draenor, but the staff is preparing to reopen for a new season.

In Patch 7.1.5, we’re introducing dozens of new bosses to test your grit, along with adding a new challenge in the form of Rumbles, which will occasionally trigger and pull spectators into the action to take on a raid boss.

Players will also be able to earn Brawler’s Gold to provide some additional communal benefits for fellow Brawlers and buy new awards for taking part in the event.

Plus, there are shirts. Lots and lots of shirts.

And a basilisk mount.

Micro-Holidays

Unlike holidays like Winter Veil, which run multiple weeks, “micro-holidays” offer brief, holiday-style events with new activities for players to take part in. For example, the citizens of Azeroth might be invited to celebrate a specific moment in their history for just a single day. These events are meant to be activities players can participate in for fun, rather than for game-changing rewards.

With Patch 7.1.5, we’ll be rolling out a variety of micro-holidays with the intent of adding more to them over time. Each one is meant to make the world feel more alive without making players feel like they need to participate for big rewards—while still providing some more variety and fun.

Blade’s Edge Arena Update

Much like the update to Nagrand Arena, we thought it was time to do a little redecorating in Blade’s Edge Mountain Arena. While we’re happy with the way this map plays, we’ve added a shiny new coat of paint so it looks more consistent with the rest of the world—and we’re introducing a new fun feature. Your battles in Blade’s Edge will now be “shoutcast” by an ogre announcer, who will call out events of particular importance. We look forward to seeing how that turns out.

Class Updates

Legion featured one of our biggest class overhauls yet, and since launch we’ve been listening to feedback from the community and making balance adjustments—but we’ve been somewhat limited in terms of what we could change in our hotfixes and first patch. Most of the changes up to this point have been constrained to hotfix-based numerical tuning. Patch 7.1.5 is when we’re really trying to tackle some of the broader class issues.

We’re taking a look at are talent rows, so we can increase the diversity of talents. For example, in the Barrage row for Marksman Hunters, it feels like there is only one option in the row that you must take regardless of your play style. There’s room for fine-tuning, and we to make it so everyone feels like they can customize their character to their liking.

We’re also looking at the relative weightings of secondary stats such as Haste, Mastery, and Crit. These are often pretty disparate for different specs and this disparity can sometimes make it feel as if an item that should be an upgrade with a higher item level isn’t as desirable as we would like. We want to make sure the gaps between best and worst aren’t so large that they distort gameplay. We’re going to be making a lot of efforts toward that end in patch 7.1.5.

This patch also allows us to make some tweaks to specific rotations, look at how things have played out since Legion, and find where there’s room to improve the overall fluidity and feel of the different specs.

And More!

Patch 7.1.5 will arrive on the Public Test Realm in the near future.

Patch 7.2: The Tomb of Sargeras

If patch 7.1.5 is a small patch, what exactly is a “big” patch? In this case, it’s Patch 7.2: The Tomb of Sargeras. This patch introduces larger pieces of content which include a new raid, the continuation of the Class Order Campaign, and much more.

Return to the Broken Shore

The demonic forces of the Burning Legion have built massive structures on the Broken Shore as a base of operations for their assault on Azeroth. It’s here that the Horde and the Alliance experienced a series of tragedies at the hands of the Legion. Now that they’ve regrouped, acquired their new weapons of power, and recruited new allies, it’s time to make a triumphant return.

Where factions failed, the Class Orders will succeed. Each class will continue their Class Order Campaign on the Broken Shore, and a new faction will be introduced: the Armies of Legionfall. Players will take part in helping build the Legionfall base to establish the initial foothold on the island, then work their way through the Legion’s defenses and eventually reach the stronghold.

To do this, the Class Orders will need to work together build up their forces by fortifying ancient elven buildings and upgrading them into one of three buildings—Nether Disruptor, Command Center, or Mage Tower—which will provide additional benefits.

Players will also discover new World Quests on the Broken Shore—along with other new challenges.

Legion Assaults

Remember the Legion invasions across Azeroth prior to the expansion’s launch? As the fight against the Legion intensifies, new assaults will be unleashed within the various zones of the Broken Isles, and heroes will be implored to thwart them once again. As the assaults intensify, the battle will culminate in a new three-player scenario that takes the fight to the Legion ships above.

Flying!

If you haven’t been working your way through Broken Isles Pathfinder Part One, make sure you’re well on your way before the introduction of Part Two. Once players have earned this achievement, they’ll be rewarded with Broken Isles Flying account-wide.

What’s even better than flying over the Broken Isles? Flying over them on your own new epic class mount! By completing the Broken Shore campaign and maxing out your Legionfall reputation, you’ll be rewarded a mount that’s unique to your class as a symbol of your dedication to defeating the Legion.

New Raid Zone: Tomb of Sargeras

On the opposite end of the Broken Shore, the Tomb of Sargeras lies in wait. Formerly the Temple of Elune, this raid dungeon will contain nine new bosses to conquer. After gaining the fifth Pillar of Creation—the Eye of Aman’Thul—from within the Nighthold, you’ll descend into the depths of the tomb and use the pillars to seal the portal through which the Legion entered Azeroth.

New Dungeon: Cathedral of Eternal Night

It’s been some time since we’ve added a new dungeon in a patch, so we thought it was about time. Patch 7.2 also features a new four-boss dungeon: Cathedral of Eternal Night. While the raid descends into the tomb, the dungeon ascends into the upper reaches of the spire. You’ll use the Aegis of Aggramar to open the rest of the tomb.

PvP Brawls

Inspired by other Blizzard games’ Brawl modes, Battleground Brawls will alter the typical rulesets in Battlegrounds. A new Brawl will be available weekly, which will add variety to the gameplay and give players some fun new activities to check out. Here are a few examples:

Southshore vs. Tarren Mill – Dive into this classic large-scale game of team deathmatch.

Instant-Cap Warsong Gulch – You don’t need to protect your own flag. Just grab and go!

Artifact weapons are one of the major features of the expansion, with many players increasing their Artifact Knowledge, unlocking new traits, and customizing the looks of their weapons to suit their characters. As a part of Patch 7.2, we’re making a few new system updates to go along with all that.

The first of these updates is the addition of new Artifact traits that can be earned and unlocked via a new Artifact campaign, which you can embark on once you’ve maxed out your Artifact weapon. There will be at least three new traits per weapon, and you can unlock the ability to spend a fourth point on every existing minor trait on your weapon. There will be approximately 15 new traits for players to earn and spend to upgrade and customize their character.

There will also be new Artifact Knowledge levels to make sure there are adequate catch-up mechanics for those who switch between characters, have alts, or are just coming into the expansion a bit late.

For additional variety and customization, we’re adding new relics that modify two Artifact traits instead of just one, so that players can further guide the direction they want their character to progress.

Beyond unlocking new traits, the new Artifact campaign will provide an opportunity for players to show mastery of their class with a solo skill challenge, which will unlock a new appearance for their chosen spec weapon. These appearances have been inspired by previous class questlines that led to weapons like Anathema/Benediction, and Rhok’delar. No grouping required—or allowed—and completing the challenge will reward a truly distinctive appearance.

Dungeon Updates

Even as we’re adding new dungeons, we’re also working to keep dungeons relevant through the entirety of the expansion.

Karazhan offers an opportunity for Mythic Keystones, but at nine bosses, it’s a bit large to fit within the Keystone structure. To address this, we’re splitting the dungeon into Upper and Lower Karazhan. There will be two separate four-boss sections that will fit into the system alongside existing dungeons and the new Cathedral of Eternal Night dungeon. This will bring the total of Mythic Keystone dungeons to 12.

To make sure all Mythic Keystone dungeons are kept relevant, we’ll also bump up the baseline difficulty, along with increasing the item rewards. To go along with this, we’ll also be experimenting with some new affixes on Keystones.

Players will get to see Patch 7.2: The Tomb of Sargeras on the PTR some time after the launch of Patch 7.1.5.

Developers’ Notes: Windwalkers are able to maintain an extremely high uptime against their targets in PvP, and their raw damage capability was just too high for a spec that’s so difficult to get away from.

(Elemental) Control of Lava now deals an additional 100% damage (was an additional 150%).

Warrior

Hamstring damage has been increased considerably, and now lasts for 12 seconds in PvP.

(Arms) Strength and Stamina increased by 10%.

(Fury) Strength and Stamina increased by 10%.

Developers’ Notes: Patch 7.1 put Hamstring back on the global cooldown, and while we still feel that that’s the correct choice for that ability, we understand that this change had a major impact on PvP Warriors’ damage rotation, as well as Hamstring’s overall uptime. To compensate, we’ve increased Hamstring’s duration so that it needs to be applied less frequently, and massively increased its damage to help make it feel worthwhile to use.

Developers’ Notes: 7.1 introduced some new talents to Destruction Warlocks to increase their control and incentivize the use of cast time spells like Chaos Bolt. These talents were overtuned initially, but we want to keep Chaos Bolt as the best damage value for a Soul Shard.

Now that Patch 7.1 has been available for a little while, we’ve been able to identify several changes to PvP tuning we’d like to make. We’d like to share those changes with you in advance, along with some developer insight. All of the following changes will only apply in PvP, and while some of them are still being tested, our goal is for all of them to go live with scheduled weekly maintenance.

Death Knight

(Frost) Strength in PvP has been reduced by 10%.

(Unholy) Apocalypse damage is no longer reduced in PvP (was reduced by 75%).

Developer Notes: Frost Death Knights have recently received a number of bug fixes and class tuning adjustments that have pushed their damage out of line in PvP. For Unholy, Apocalypse’s damage was reduced during beta due to its burst potential, but due to other changes, we no longer feel that reduction is necessary.

Demon Hunter

(Havoc) Agility increased by 5%.

(Havoc) Stamina increased by 10%.

Developer Notes: As players have become more accustomed to Demon Hunters and how to counter them, we feel their damage and general survivability has ended up a little low, so we’re giving them a little tuning to help them compete.

Hunter

(Survival) Stamina has been increased by 15%.

Developer Notes: As a melee DPS, Survival Hunters have been a bit too squishy in PvP, so we’re increasing their Stamina.

Mage

(Frost) Intellect has been reduced by 10%

Developer Notes: Frost Mages recently received some damage increases that we feel need to be counter-tuned in PvP.

Developer Notes: Windwalkers are able to maintain an extremely high uptime against their targets in PvP, and their raw damage capability was just too high for a spec that’s so difficult to get away from.

Developer Notes: We’ve received a lot of feedback that Elemental Shaman feel good in PvP once they have access to the Honor Talent Control of Lava, but felt too weak without it. We’ve decided to remove the PvP reduction on the base Lava Burst spell and reduce the benefit from Control of Lava to compensate. This results in effectively the same damage for players who still wish to use Control of Lava, but an increase to Lava Burst without it.

Warrior

Hamstring damage has been increased considerably, and now lasts for 12 seconds in PvP.

(Arms) Strength and Stamina increased by 10%.

(Fury) Strength and Stamina increased by 10%.

Developer Notes: Patch 7.1 put Hamstring back on the global cooldown, and while we still feel that that’s the correct choice for that ability, we understand that this change had a major impact on PvP Warriors’ damage rotation, as well as Hamstring’s overall uptime. To compensate, we’ve increased Hamstring’s duration so that it needs to be applied less frequently, and massively increased its damage to help make it feel worthwhile to use. Additionally, we felt that Warriors weren't feeling quite tough enough in PvP, so we’ve increased Strength and Stamina for Arms and Fury.

Developer Notes: 7.1 introduced some new talents to Destruction Warlocks to increase their control and incentivize the use of cast time spells like Chaos Bolt. These talents were overtuned initially, but we want to keep Chaos Bolt as the best damage value for a Soul Shard.

(Balance) New Moon, Half Moon, and Full Moon are now in the Arcane spell school.

Items

Spirit Cauldrons no longer have collision.

Player versus Player

Reminder: These changes are only active while in PvP combat situations and do not affect PvE. Many more Honor Talent changes are coming with Patch 7.1, including changes to Destruction Warlocks, Windwalker Monks, Death Knights, Balance Druids, and Restoration Druids.

Mage

Frost

Ice Form now has a 60 second cooldown (was 45 seconds).

Ice Form can no longer be cast while stunned.

Ice Form will now cause the Mage to be immune to only stuns, instead of other unintended crowd-control effects, such as Paralysis.

Frostbolt no longer deals increased damage in PvP (was a multiplier of +10%).

Developers’ Notes: Frost Mages are intended to create burst windows with Shatter and Glacial Spike, but have been reaching unintended levels of damage. By reducing Frostbolt damage, we’re reducing the potential size of Icicles and Glacial Spike burst. The Ice Form fixes should reduce its uptime, which was too high.

Hunter

Beast Mastery

Beast Mastery Agility reduced by 10% in PvP.

Developers’ Notes: We’ve found Beast Mastery damage to be too high, but we don’t feel that it’s due to any specific ability or mechanic, so we’re reducing the overall PvP template.

Developers’ Notes: Mistweavers been one of our strongest healers. We feel Soothing Mist is doing too much healing per second on its own, making it so that the Mistweaver doesn’t have to use cast-time healing spells as much as other healers, even when their target is taking high amounts of damage. We’re reducing Soothing Mist slightly to address this. Mistwalk was never intended to be used while the Mistweaver was silenced or locked out of Nature, so we’ve fixed that as a bug.

Paladin

Pure of Heart no longer causes Cleanse to incur a cooldown when it removes poisons and diseases.

Pure of Heart no longer triggers when healed by a periodic heal effect, but will trigger when a spell such as Rejuvenation is initially cast.

Developers’ Notes: Retribution Paladins are designed to be a formidable damage dealer and also have a protective, counter-control kit for their allies. Pure of Heart is intended to “soft-counter” poisons and diseases, but we feel it’s too strong currently when the Paladin is paired with a healing-over-time healer. Pure of Heart will now only trigger when a healing spell is applied, but not periodically during the spell.

Retribution

Blessing of Sanctuary now has a 30 second cooldown, up from 25 seconds.

Developers’ Notes: Blessing of Sanctuary has proven to be a strong, signature Honor Talent, but we feel its cooldown is too short.

Rogue

Assassination

System Shock now properly requires an Envenom cast with 5 or more combo points.

System Shock’s damage has been reduced by 20%.

Assassination’s Agility has been reduced by 5% in PvP.

Developers’ Notes: The Assassination Rogue is intended to be a strong, persistent damage dealer that pressures targets but lacks the utility that Outlaw excels in or the mobility that Subtlety provides. We’ve been monitoring their damage and feel its higher than intended, and we’ve found some bugs with System Shock contributed to this. We’ve also altered their PvP template to effectively reduce their damage.

Outlaw

Control is King will no longer stack Adrenaline Rush above a 3 second duration.

Developers’ Notes: Control is King is intended to be an attractive choice for the Outlaw Rogue when within a control oriented team composition. This has worked out a bit too well. Now, subsequent procs of Control of King will no longer add to the duration, and instead will just refresh itself.

Shaman

Enhancement

Stormstrike’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.

Heroism and Bloodlust now have a 60 second cooldown when modified by Shamanism (was 45 seconds).

Developers’ Notes: The Enhancement Shaman is intended to be a formidable damage dealer who also provides offensive group utility through totems and buffs. Shamanism has been a popular choice for the Enhancement Shaman, allowing them to use Bloodlust/Heroism frequently and also in Arena combat. We like the utility this gives the Shaman, but feel its uptime is too high. Further, we feel the Enhancement Shaman’s burst damage with Stormstrike has been reaching unintended levels.

October 12

Hotfixes

Class Halls

General and LocalDefense chat channels are now functioning properly in the Shaman Class Hall.

Dungeons and Raids

In Mythic Keystone dungeons, Shadow Priests who die due to Surrender to Madness expiring should no longer incur a 5 second time penalty.

Emerald Nightmare

Heart of Corruption

On Mythic difficulty, the Corruptor Tentacle that previously spawned at 225 seconds into the fight now spawns at 235 seconds, and the Deathglare Tentacle that previously spawned at 240 seconds into the fight now spawns at 250 seconds.

Items

Items rewarded from emissary bags now more closely match the quality of World Quest rewards.

The Spear of Rethu polearm now scales properly from character level 1 to 100, now properly appears in the heirloom list, and is now correctly a 2-handed weapon.

Quests

Oculeth no longer disappears after completing the quest "Arcan'dor, Gift of the Ancient Magi."

Gnomish Gearworks and Goblin Workshop items are now restricted to use in Warlords of Draenor zones.

The Starlight Beacon should now more reliably trigger its 15-second cooldown.

Fixed a bug where Potion of the Old War was not triggering as often as intended.

Professions

Basilisks that appear when mining an ore node or creature will only drop additional ore for miners with at least 75 skill.

The archaeology quest “Echoes of My Ancestors” should no longer propagate credit to other group members.

The Mark of the Hidden Satyr enchant should no longer reset your auto-attack swing timer when it activates.

Cooking

The recipes that Nomi teaches you are no longer unique.

Nomi will now also check your bank to see if you have any Silver Mackerel for him to burn.

PvP

Fixed a bug that caused some Elite PvP gear to be awarded at ratings that were too low.

The primary stat on all templates has been decreased by about 10%.

Discipline Priests now deal 15% less damage in PvP, and all other healing specs now deal 25% less damage in PvP

Developers’ Notes: Since all healing specs have had their Intellect increased (detailed below) to increase their healing, we’ve lowered the amount of damage they do against players to 25% (from 15%). Discipline priests are intended to do more damage than other healers and so their damage done is only decreased by 15%.

Pets and guardians now take 75% reduced AoE damage in PvP (was 50%).

Tanks now take 25% more damage from other players.

The stamina of each tank spec has been increased slightly in PvP instances (battlegrounds, arenas, and Ashran).

Players who race in or around the Watch Tower Assault: Nightwatcher's Perch during the "Ley Race" quest are no longer flagged for PvP.

Players who backfill into an Ashran that is closing down because there are not enough players will not receive the Recreant debuff once the Ashran closes.

Prestige 4 players will now properly receive The Honorable title when reaching honor level 50.

Demon Hunter

Agility reduced by 10% in PvP.

Druid

(Restoration) Intellect increased by 15%.

Hunter

Survival Tactics is no longer activated by Play Dead or Wake Up.

Monk

(Mistweaver) Intellect increased by 5%.

Effuse and Enveloping Mist can now properly be cast while moving through Soothing Mist, when specialized in both Mist Wrap and Ancient Mistweaver Arts.

Paladin

(Holy) Intellect increased by 5%.

Priest

(Discipline) Intellect increased by 5%.

(Holy) Intellect increased by 5%.

Rogue

(Subtlety) Stamina reduced by 10%, Agility reduced by 15%.

(Assassination) Agility reduced by 30%.

(Outlaw) Agility reduced by 10 %.

Shaman

(Restoration) Intellect increased by 5%.

Quests

Abandoning “Cry Thunder!” will now cause Vethir to despawn, and will remove the player from the mount. Players can voluntarily exit the vehicle at any point, which will teleport them to the ground if they're very high.

Fixed a bug that could cause Illidan Stormrage to prevent the “Ravencrest’s Legacy” scenario from continuing.

Players will no longer be immediately teleported after accepting “Last Stand of the Moon Guard”, and must speak to Thalrenus Rivertree to be teleported to Meredil.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Legion. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

Additional information about the expansion can be found below.

September 1

Hotfixes

Classes

Death Knight

Anti-Magic Barrier should no longer grant more than the intended bonus when combined with other effects that increase health.

Vampiric Blood should no longer grant more than the intended bonus when combined with other effects that increase health.

Mage

Ignite spreading will no longer incorrectly remove other Mages' Ignite.

Monk

Fortifying Brew should no longer grant more than the intended bonus when combined with other effects that increase health.

Shaman

Enhancement Shamans should no longer be prevented from using instant Healing Surge while moving.

Warrior

Commanding Shout should no longer grant more than the intended bonus when combined with other effects that increase health.

Items

The tooltip for Tome of the Clear Mind now correctly states a maximum player level of 109 for its use.

Skaggldrynk should now properly share a cooldown with other combat potions.

NPCs

Tarben <Jarl of Tideskorn Harbor> should now cast his Jarl’s Command fear spell a bit less often.

In Darkbrul Arena, Stonefist Brawler’s stun attack should now be removable by effects that remove stuns.

Professions

Reaves Module: Snack Distribution Mode no longer requires feasts.

PvP

Experience earned from gaining Honor has been reduced by approximately 50%.

Developer’s note: We want battlegrounds and skirmishes to be a worthwhile and rewarding activity while leveling, but that should not be the most efficient method for gaining XP. While we've decreased the experience from PvP, it is still more efficient than it was in previous expansions.

Quests

Fixed an issue where faction transfers would interfere with Death Knight's ability to complete the Class Hall quest "The Firstborn Rises".

Fixed a bug causing players who died during the sequence of Dalaran's teleportion would get stuck in Deadwind Pass.

Paladins should now be able to progress with their Class Hall Campaigns after completing the quest "The Scion's Legacy", by speaking with Lord Maxwell Tyrosus.

Teensy Weensy Fae Dragons should now appear more frequently during the quest “Teensy Weenies!”.

Artifact

Rogue player should no longer sometimes experience issues using their Smoke Bomb during "The Unseen Blade".

Players should no longer be erroneously placed in a phase in Deadwind Pass that makes them unable to complete quests in the area, including "Following the Curse."

Hunters completing to quest to obtain their second or third artifact should no longer receive the quest "Hunter to Hunter" after turn-in.

The points of interest for the Warrior quest “Legacy of the Icebreaker" are now displaying correctly and the stage objectives update appropriately.

Azsuna

Daglop should no longer disengage with the player, allowing “Minion! Kill Them!” to be completed normally.

During "The Right Weapon for the Job", shipwrecked captives in the Shipwreck Arena clubhouse should no longer glow as if they’re viable targets for the quest.

Players who leave the area and return during the “The Scythe of Souls” should be able to complete the quest.

Players entering the Nor'danil Wellspring in Azsuna should no longer be incorrectly queued to enter the Withered Scenario in Suramar.

Players should no longer fail to loot several quest objects in the Nar’thalas Academy during quests such as "Study Hall: Combat Research" and “Dressing with Class”.

Highmountain

The bungee rope attached to the player should no longer disappear during the quest “Going Down, Going Up”.

Mayla Highmountain should no longer leave combat and reset the Wrath of Dargrul boss fight during “The Underking”.

On “Murlocs: The Next Generation” and “Oh, the Clawdacity!”, Murky’s abilities no longer affect other players in PvP. Gurrullrurlll mrrrgrglru ruluulll.

Stormheim

"Waking the Shieldmaiden" now has a correctly-placed location dot on the map.

Val’sharah

Fixed a number of issues with the "Defend The Temple" Bonus Objective in Val'sharah.

UI

Obelisk of the Void should appear in the Dungeon Journal for all ranged damage dealers and healers.

Zones

Orgrimmar, Stormwind, and previously invasion-affected areas should once again be unified for single realms.

Developer’s note: On RP servers, we’re setting sharding and cross-realm zoning back to how things were working before the Burning Legion invaded. This had been changed for stability during pre-launch events and invasions.

August 30

Hotfixes

Classes

Rogue

Corrected an issue that prevented Assassination Rogues from queuing for Legion dungeons even after obtaining their Artifact.

Items

Rhonin's Assaulting Armwraps will now activate only once per cast of Arcane Missiles. Proc rate and buff duration have been adjusted to compensate.

Sephuz's Secret should now be activated by Grimoire: Felguard's Axe Toss.

Quests

Legion players who had begun the post-Broken Shore event quests, but not completed them, should now be eligible to receive “In the Blink of an Eye”.

Artifact

The Living Flames summoned by Felsoul Crushers now give appropriate levels of experience during "The Hunt".

Players should now properly receive credit for traveling to the Emerald Dreamway during "Cleansing the Mother Tree" when using the Dreamwalk ability.

Stormweaver Ingrida should no longer sometimes evade during "Stolen Thunder".

Highmountain

The Weapon Racks on Torok's Bluff can now be interacted with after their first use during the Bonus Objective "Vengeance for the Stonedark".

Credit for enemies defeated during the quest "Huln's War - Reinforcements" should now be shared among all nearby players.

Stormheim

Dread-Rider Malwick should respawn more readily, allowing for completion of “Assault and Battery”.

Players who are ready to turn in the quest “The Splintered Fleet” can now always see Dread-Rider Cullen. If she has just flown away, she will re-appear within a few minutes.

Players who abandon the quest “Dances with Ravenbears” should no longer retain the quest ability bar.

“Greymane’s Gambit” now reliably credits the player for completing the scenario.

“The Splintered Fleet” now reliably credits the player for completing the scenario.

The Skyfire Propeller should no longer become untouchable during “Signal Boost”.

Val’sharah

Pollous the Fetid is now always roaming around Dreadroot in Val’sharah and defeatable, allowing “Purging the River” to be completed.

Players who are in a group and arrive late for the final kill in “The Fate of Val’sharah” should receive credit and be able to proceed.

Fixed a number of issues with the "Defend The Temple" Bonus Objective in Val'sharah.

Zones

Players can now rest and bind their hearthstone in the Forsaken Foothold and Skyfire Triage Camp areas in Stormheim.

Prepare to fight your last battles of the season—Warlords Season 3 will end at 2:00 a.m. PDT on July 19, 2016.

After the season wraps, we will begin the process of determining eligibility for end-of-season rewards. If you believe that you’ve qualified for Warlords Season 3 PvP rewards, please refrain from transferring your character(s) to another realm or faction until awards are granted approximately two weeks later.

The next PvP season, Legion Season 1, will begin after World of Warcraft: Legion launches on August 30. In the meantime, all Honor and Conquest Points will be converted to in-game currency at a rate of 35 silver per point. Also, Rated Battleground and Arena matches will not be available during the break between seasons. We will confirm the start date of the forthcoming Legion Season 1 at a later date.

Please note that the end of the season does not require a patch to the game, and will occur automatically.

We are continuing our weekly series of Live Developer Q&As, taking place every Thursday at 8pm CEST. You can tune in live at Twitch.tv/Warcraft You can submit your questions via Twitter using the hashtag #LegionQA, or simply by replying to this forum thread.

Next week, June 30, we'll be talking with Senior Game Designer Brian Holinka regarding PvP in Legion!We will only be considering questions related to the topic of PvP, and only questions submitted following this week's Q&A. As a reminder, we would like to keep the questions short so we can make sure we get to as many questions as possible, so please keep your questions to 40 words or less.

We've been working on some improvements to our auto-detection processes. Seems like our latest improvements were... let's say "over-enthusiastic."If you were falsely hit by this latest wave, first of all, we'd like to apologize. We obviously did not intend to inconvenience legitimate players, and something went wrong somewhere. We're still investigating to figure out what that was.Secondly, please put in a GM ticket at your earliest convenience via the website at https://battle.net/support/help/product ... 9/solution and we'll get you back in the game as soon as possible.

Thanks again for all of your feedback. We’ve been discussing it heavily, and are going to make a few more changes.

First, we’re going to make the remaining non-set armor pieces available on the Conquest vendors. They’ll still be available through the Champion’s Strongboxes, but if you’d rather not leave earning them up to random chance, you’ll be able to purchase them for Conquest points instead. With this change, the only items that will only be available through the Champion’s Strongboxes are the random-stat Accolade trinkets (which cannot be put on the vendors due to some technical hurdles). We're aiming to make this change with this upcoming weekly reset.

Note that, as a result of this change taking place, we no longer plan to make the Champion’s Strongboxes purchasable with Conquest points for players who have earned the Wild Conquest achievement. Since nearly all of the items in the Strongboxes will be directly purchasable with Conquest points themselves, we feel that this would just add unnecessary frustration or confusion if players were to spend their Conquest on a Strongbox instead of just buying the item they wanted.

The other change we’ll be making is to remove the Ashran-only 200 Conquest point bonus to the weekly Conquest cap. The total cap (1700 plus any additional bonuses from rating) will remain the same as it is currently, you just won’t have to go to Ashran to earn all of it. We're hoping to push this change live with this week's reset, but it requires a lot more programming and testing to make sure it's functioning properly, so it may not go live until the following week.

Again, thanks for all the heartfelt feedback on this issue. We’ve definitely learned a lot of very valuable lessons, and are looking forward to seeing how the rest of Warlords Season 2 progresses!

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft Patch 6.2.0. Hotfixes are updates made without requiring a new client-side patch. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require a realm restarte to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

July 24

PvP

PvP Reward Changes

Please note that the following PvP reward changes are currently still in-testing.

Conquest vendors now sell non-set PvP armor pieces that could be found in the Champion’s Strongbox.

Removed the Ashran-only 200 Conquest Point bonus to the weekly Conquest cap. Total Conquest cap remains unchanged, but characters no longer need to go to Ashran to earn all of it.

Warrior

Tier-18 4-piece set bonus for Arms Warriors now increases the tick rate of Rend by 33% (down from 50%), and fixed a bug where it was granting double the intended increase.

Class

Monk

Mistweaver

Fixed a number of issues with Sacred Draenic Incense for Mistweavers where it would benefit twice from effects which increase healing taken, and could bypass area-of-effect healing caps.

Priest

Armor Sets

Tier-18 4-piece set bonus for Discipline Priests now targets friendly targets to heal with the greatest % of missing health instead of current health. For example, the heal now prioritizes a player with 350k/500k instead of a player with 300k/300k health.

Shaman

Enhancement

Fixed an issue with Maelstrom Weapon that caused Healing Surge combined with the Tier-18 4-piece set bonus to heal for more than the intended amount.

Quests

Garrison Campaign

High Overlord Saurfang and Muradin Bronzebeard in the player's Garrisons now have chance to offer the Hellfire Citadel weekly raid quest when eligible.

Professions

Ruined Construct: Jewelcrafters in a raid group should no longer see an option to insert 1000 Apexis Crystals into the Apexis Gemcutter Construct.

Creatures and NPCs

Tanaan Jungle

Fixed an issue that could cause the demon invasion leading to Painmistress Selora appearing to not work correctly.

Raids and Dungeons

Hellfire Citadel

Gorefiend

Gorefiend should no longer be using other abilities while channeling Feast of Souls.

Fel Lord Zakuun

Fixed an issue that could cause Fel Lord Zakuun to cast two Rumbling Fissures in rapid succession depending on when he was brought below 30% health.

Few points of clarification based on some discussion we've been seeing around the interwebs:

On racials: The current intention is that the system swaps your race entirely, including your racial ability. We recognize that that puts Humans in a weird spot, so we're looking into some options there that aren't "spend your Honor/Conquest on a Medallion."

Only the faction that is currently experiencing a long queue will have the option to act as a Mercenary, and only when those queues reach a certain point (which is still being determined). In the current environment, we expect that to generally be Alliance. Since queues have to reach that threshold before Mercenary Mode becomes available, we don't anticipate an increase in Horde queue times.

Using the Mercenary Mode system is completely opt-in. It's important to us that if you don't choose to participate in Mercenary Mode, it doesn't affect you. Should you be grouped with players who are using the system, they will not be identified to you as mercenaries -- they'll look like just another player from your faction.

Similarly, it's important to note that these are not creating "mixed-faction" scenarios. There will be no Humans fighting alongside Orcs. Again, our intent is that you are completely unaware that the person next to you is secretly a Night Elf.

We don't consider Mercenary Mode to be a replacement for racial balance. We just also don't think that perfectly balanced racials would instantly resolve queue time issues. We also don't think that players should feel forced to faction transfer (potentially away from friends and guildmates) in order to experience reasonable queue times.The picture in the blog is of one of the NPCs that Alliance players can speak to to activate Mercenary Mode for Battlegrounds. Players who are using Mercenary Mode won't just be wearing a Hallow's End mask, lol.

Ultimately, this system's sole purpose is to help resolve the issue where heavy tilts in faction populations can result in excessively long queue times for unrated PvP content.

After an intense season of conflict in Arenas and Battlegrounds, the time is coming soon to see who has climbed to the top of the PvP ranks. Prepare to fight your last battles of this season, and remember—there is no substitute for victory!

With the upcoming release of Patch 6.2, the Arena and Rated Battlegrounds Warlords Season 1 will be ending. Once the patch is live, we'll begin a roughly two-week process to determine end-of-season reward eligibility.

All players who believe that they may have qualified for Warlords Season 1 awards should note the following:

In order to ensure you receive your award(s), please refrain from transferring your character(s) to another realm or faction until after Warlords Season 1 has ended.

Warlords Season 1 titles and mounts will be awarded approximately two weeks after the season ends.

Conquest Points will be converted to Honor Points at the end of the season, and any Honor above 4,000 will be converted to in-game currency at a rate of 35 silver per point. A few other things to keep in mind once the season has ended:

The Honor cap will remain at 4,000.

Warlords Season 1 items with rating requirements will no longer be available for purchase.

Rated Battleground and Arena matches will not be available during the break between seasons.

We will confirm the start date of the forthcoming Warlords Season 2 in a post here in the weeks to come.

In war, you win or lose, live or die—and the difference is but an eyelash. To the battlefield!

There's a ton of great feedback in this thread, and as I tried (but seem to have failed) to get across in my first reply, we do actually agree with a lot of it. We agree that there's still too much CC. We agree that survivability is too strong for some classes (which includes things like the number of defensive cooldowns, self-healing, etc). We agree with a lot of the concerns about the gearing process. We agree with a lot of the concerns about burst damage and offensive cooldowns.

To put it another way: we know that World of Warcraft PvP can be better than it is right now. We're actively working on some ideas that we're hoping will help a lot. But there's only so much we can do in a content patch. At the end of the day, the gameplay experience in Patch 6.2 should be overall very similar to the experience in 6.1. We can improve on it, but we're not going to make the sort of massive changes we made with 6.0 and the launch of Warlords.

I'm saying this not because I don't think you should expect any fixes or improvements in 6.2. We've already made several PvP-focused changes on the PTR, and I know of at least a couple more that are still in process (or at least being considered). I just don't want to give the expectation that we're going to be able to address all of these concerns in a content patch.

The discussion happening in this thread has been super helpful in aligning our thoughts and goals for the future. I'm looking forward to being able to discuss what those thoughts and goals are in more detail, once we've gotten a bit more nailed down and are ready to share them.

Items

To ensure that defeating new bosses feels appropriately rewarding, we are increasing the item levels of Blackrock Foundry raid drops by 5 item levels across all difficulties. Additionally, Stage-4 Draenor crafted and Tier-4 Apexis vendor gear have also been increased by 5 item levels to keep their power unchanged relative to Blackrock Foundry raid itemization. The above changes are retroactive. For more information on the reasoning for this change, please visit the forum thread titled: Blackrock Foundry Item Level Change.

PvP

In response to player feedback, we've reverted a hotfix from March 11 where players dealt 10% less damage against other players while in PvP combat.

Classes

Death Knight

General

[Requires a realm restart] Reverted a hotfix from March 11 that fixed a situation where Blood Tap (Talent) and Death Strike would interact incorrectly and allowed Death Runes to become permanent.

Mage

Frost

Fixed an issue where Enhanced Frostbolt's effect could be incorrectly consumed if the Mage was casting Frostbolt when it triggers.

Quests

The Day Deathwing Came: What Really Happened: Upon reaching the end of the canyon, Martek should now correctly remember that his motorcycle could fly, and allow players to complete the quest.

Environment and World Events

Frostfire Ridge

Removed an inaccessible treasure marker on the mini-map for characters that have learned Frostfire Treasure Map.

Raids and Dungeons

Blackrock Foundry

The Blast Furnace

Blackhand should no longer be speaking to players during the encounter if he has already been defeated.

Legacy

Naxxramas: Fixed an issue that could cause players to become stuck if Gothik the Harvester was defeated too quickly.

We're actually working on some changes along these lines for Patch 6.1, which should be hitting the PTR relatively soon (but possibly not in today's build). PvE gear will be scaled down to item level 680 instead of 690, and Primal Combatant/Primal Gladiator trinkets are having their power increased.

Why not just make the PVE trinkets and PVE set bonuses entirely unusable while in instanced, rated PVP? That way, it wouldn't hurt people that are gearing up and just doing BGs or WPVPers.

PvE set bonuses are disabled in rated PvP. If you find one that isn't, that's a bug, please report it!We don't always have a great way to apply similar logic to trinkets, but we are able to adjust specific trinkets when necessary -- for example, we've just hotfixed the Scabbard of Kyanos' on-use effect to have a lower effectiveness in PvP situations.

Just dropping a note here for anyone that had Tarren Mill vs Southshore vetoed (unchecked) when the realms came down for maintenance this week, you may have noticed that you now only have 1 battleground deselected, because the now invisible TM vs SS battleground is still technically unchecked.

It's a bug we're aware of, in the meantime you can fix this yourself by entering the following in chat:

Because Arena can have the same faction facing each other in a match, all of the high end players tend to gravitate to one faction or the other so they can play with each other. Last season pretty much everyone in NA was Horde, and EU was Alliance. Regardless of if a race or faction is considered to have superior racials the ladders would still show an all-in approach on one or the other. You could completely remove racials and still see the same coordinated division. Feedback on Racials is welcome and considered, but for the outlined reasons showing the best players coordinating toward a single faction isn't by itself a good indicator of anything except for the nature of the top competitors looking to play and practice with each other. It's going to happen regardless of pretty much anything else.

With Warlords Season 1 beginning today, we're spawning in some new vendors for Honor and Conquest gear in a more permanent location inside Stormshield and Warspear, and wanted to be sure everyone is aware of their locations.

In Stormshield, Alliance players can find Bregg Coppercast (Honor) and Ingrid Blackingot (Conquest) standing in front of the Siege Tank near the exit to Ashran, across from the training dummies.

In Warspear, Horde players can find Lieutenant Brokefist (Honor) and Lieutenant Axelash (Conquest) on the hill next to the exit to Ashran, just down the path from the inn.

As I mentioned previously, we're working to "scrub" the Arena and RBG ladders to disqualify cheaters. Our original plan was to hand out the end of season rewards with today's maintenance. However, as work to clean up the ladders continues, it's become apparent that we will not have them ready today.

Our revised plan is to release them next week at the latest, but we're hoping to be able to award them sooner than that. We sincerely apologize for the delay in getting these rewards out to those who earned them legitimately.

Built upon the remnants of an ogre civilization, Ashran looks deceptively like a nice enough island just off the coast of Tanaan Jungle. And it probably would be a lovely place to visit if not for the never-ending tug-of-war between the Horde and Alliance taking place in the central region of the zone. Then again, this might just be just your kind of excursion.

Ashran offers tons of opportunities for players to engage in a variety of activities, whether they want to go it solo or join a group, slay monsters, or engage in PvP with their rival faction.

Building World PvP into AshranOver the years, players have been asking for more opportunities to engage in world PvP, and we’ve experimented with a variety of approaches to that in places like Halaa and Wintergrasp. Creating opportunities for unscripted, unexpected skirmishes might seem simple on the surface, but they’re often difficult to engineer without sacrificing the unpredictable nature of these encounters. In its purest form, world PvP means no boundaries or limitations on when skirmishes break out. When creating areas specifically designated for PvP encounters, gameplay objectives will always have an impact on how people play and engage with each other. In the end, many will choose the path of least resistance to achieve their faction’s win condition, and sometimes that path involves simply ignoring other players.

In order to create the type of atmosphere that encourages more free-form world PvP in Ashran, we decided to apply lessons we’ve learned from the Timeless Isle. By giving players more personal goals and opportunities—such as killing creatures—players are more likely to find themselves spontaneously engaging in PvP to compete for them. We want players to get caught up in the moment and become emotionally invested in the outcome of each new encounter, whether it’s just getting the drop on a member of the opposite faction player or getting revenge for a stolen kill. While Ashran still has plenty of objective-based conflict (more on that in a bit), if you want that distinctive flavor of world PvP, the island has that for you too.

This Island is No FantasyLocated off the coast of Tanaan Jungle, Ashran is a large, open PvP zone for players who have reached the max level of 100, and it offers a little something for everyone. Players can reach the island easily a few different ways, including using a flight path or by unlocking quick access within their Garrison once it reaches Tier 3. The more daring—or foolhardy—adventurers could also try doggy paddling to the island, but we don’t recommend it. (Seriously, we wouldn’t try it if we were you. You’ve been warned. In a world where pretty much everything wants to kill you, you’re best off traveling to an island of pure conflict the safest possible way. We really wouldn’t steer you wrong on this one.)

Unlike previous PvP zones, such as Tol Barad or Wintergrasp, no raid group is required to take part in the excitement, and the zone will cap out at approximately 100 players per side, opening the door to some truly epic-sized confrontations. To keep the action amped up, the same large group of regular realms will feed into the zone, so it’s likely you’ll run into some familiar faces whenever you visit, both friend and foe. There will be plenty of room to roam, as Ashran measures approximately the size of the Isle of Thunder. The intention is to provide as much of a true world PvP experience as we possibly can to those who choose to frequent the island. The odds may not always be in your favor, but with so many places to hunker down to either hide or lie in wait, there are plenty of opportunities to achieve whatever goals you’ve set forth for yourself.

The Lay of the LandAt each end of the island, separate from the conflict enveloping the isle, players will find a small sanctum of relative safety. Full-sized Horde and Alliance hubs sit behind each faction’s base, offering pretty much everything a regular city would.

Ready to dive into the fray? One main artery runs through the center of the zone, and it’s here that you’ll engage in an endless faction tug-of-war. At opposite endpoints, Horde and Alliance bases wait to be captured, and you’ll be fighting for control of five additional capture points as you make your way down the lane. Capturing these points along the way will push you and your faction toward the enemy base, making it possible to take the battle all the way to the opposing faction’s base. To effectively hamstring your opponents and hobble their efforts for a time, you’ll just need to take down their General within their base. Doing so will not only garner you bragging rights, but will also deny the opposing faction access to their General, who serves as a Conquest vendor.

At the central hub, the Ogre King stands waiting, flanked by his two bodyguards. Engaging one of the bodyguards and proving your worth in combat will win the Ogre King to your faction’s side, and he will fight for you for a time. But beware! His endurance is limited, and the longer he goes undefeated, the more susceptible to damage he becomes.

As in many Battlegrounds, each faction will have a Resource count available to them. Once a faction’s Resources drop to 100, they’ll get a little extra help via a randomly spawning Captain who will begin to fight for their side. Many of these will bear familiar names such as Swifty, who will fight for the Alliance, or Talbadar, who will fight for the Horde. There’s no guarantee who will ultimately come to your aid, however. Each time a side reaches this Resource count, a new random captain will join the fray.

Beyond the Tug-Of-WarThere’s more to Ashran than the conflict in the central lane. Around Ashran there are additional points of interest (POIs) and monsters to slay. The various POIs offer a variety of random events which will allow players to win awards for the Horde or Alliance. Buffs can also be earned by killing other players or NPCs. There are currently seven POIs set around the edges of Ashran—we’ll go into detail on each of these later on down the line.

Righteous RewardsAs you make your way around Ashran, you’ll be collecting currency from other players and from monsters you’ve slain. This currency can then be turned in at your base for additional bonuses for your faction, such as Mage Portals or a Warlock Gateway. Or you can choose to summon a random—and truly epic—NPC to join in the fight. You’ll want to take care, though, and plan your turn-ins accordingly. One losing encounter with a player of the opposite faction can strip you of your hard-fought treasure and have it wind up in their pockets instead.

You’ll also be able to collect zone-bound items (usable only on the island) to give yourself a little extra advantage as you take on the various challenges around Ashran.

For those looking for the next step in gear, Ashran will provide access to Conquest-quality gear that is unavailable elsewhere.

Building on lessons learned from the Timeless Isle and Alterac Valley, we want players who make their way to Ashran to always have something exciting to do, and to offer them a true world PvP experience. Whether your aim is to engage in PvP or take on the various points of interest, there’s bound to be something to get your adrenaline going.

As part of our continued efforts to curb exploitive behavior and improve the overall PvP experience for our players, we’re applying a couple hotfixes that will make a few changes to how the Deserter debuff functions, and also apply it to Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds.

Once these hotfixes are applied, a player who leaves an Arena or Rated Battleground before anyone in the match has entered combat will, at first, be given a 5-minute Deserter debuff. If they leave another match prematurely within a 20-minute window, the duration of the Deserter debuff will increase by 5 minutes each time (and the 20-minute window will restart), to a maximum of 20 minutes. The debuff will also apply if a player leaves the queue (or ignores it) once the match is ready and they’re given the prompt to enter.

The Deserter debuff given for leaving a non-rated Battleground early will also be changed to begin at 5 minutes (and increase by 5 minutes for each subsequent desertion), but otherwise the rules will stay the same. Leaving a Random Battleground in progress at any point before it’s finished will give the Deserter debuff, and leaving or ignoring the prompt to enter a non-rated Battleground will not.

We’re currently in the process of preparing and testing the hotfix, but hope to push it live with this week’s maintenance period.

We’ve recently identified an issue that was causing the Rated Battleground flag carrier debuff to function incorrectly. Under normal circumstances, non-tank flag carriers in Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks should take 20% additional damage, and tank-specced flag carriers should take 50% additional damage. Currently, that debuff is only increasing damage to tank-specced players by 20%. We’re in the process of applying a hotfix that will, once again, cause tank-specced players to take 50% increased damage when carrying the flag. This hotfix will be applied as soon as possible, and will not require realm restarts to activate.

In addition, we’re working on expanding that functionality to orb carriers in Rated Temple of Kotmogu, and cart carriers in Rated Deepwind Gorge. In Temple of Kotmogu, we’ll be increasing the extra damage taken while carrying the orb to 50% if the player has chosen a tank specialization. In Deepwind Gorge, we’ll be applying the same debuff used in Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks. Cart carriers who have chosen a DPS or healing specialization will take 20% increased damage, while cart carriers who have chosen a tank specialization will take 50% increased damage. These changes will not be applied until next week’s realm maintenance.

These mechanics and changes are exclusive to Rated Battlegrounds. They will not be applied to non-Rated BGs.

Our matchmaking system does its best to even out healers between teams in Random Battlegrounds. So if one team has 3 healers, it will do its best to match up them up against a team with a similar number. Maybe it's 2 or 4 instead of 3, but it's still relatively even in the grand scope of things.

When we see cases like the OP describes where one team has a much higher number of healers than the other, that's almost always due to players misusing the queue system. See, when you queue for a BG, the system assumes you intend to play the role you've queued for (or if you've selected both, that you'll play whatever role it assigns you). As we've investigated these cases of heavy healer imbalance, we've discovered that's not always the case.

Sometimes, a player will queue as both roles, but not play the one they're assigned (either because they didn't notice it, or simply chose to ignore it). Some players queue as healer with the intention of playing as DPS, under the (incorrect) assumption that it will speed up their queue times. In some extreme cases, players will specifically queue as DPS with the intention of playing healer and causing an imbalance.

To alleviate this and help ensure that groups have equal numbers of healers, we plan to lock players into specs that align with the role they were assigned when the queue popped. So, for example, a Shaman who only selects the Damage Dealer option when queuing will be forced to play as either Enhancement or Elemental once they're in the battleground. A Priest who selects Healer can choose to play as either Holy or Discipline, but not Shadow. And a Monk who selects both Healer and Damage Dealer and is assigned to heal will be forced to play Mistweaver.

Keep in mind that the system doesn't look for a set number of healers when it's setting up games -- all it's doing is trying to match up teams with roughly the same number. The goal isn't necessarily to ensure that every single game has 3 healers, it's just to make sure that it doesn't match a team with 4 healers up against a team who only has 1. When everyone's playing the roles they're expected to, it can be much more successful.